Atre are all the fabrics that Valerie is swathed in – in the pics on this page – suitable for adark autumn?

Your comment got me thinking. My makeup has evolved so much over the years, and a lot of the changes I have made have been due to the slow realisation that I need a lot of pigment – in the right places. Christine always says that if you pick colours that exist in you, it is surprising how deep you can take those colours. I always thought that fair skin meant that I shouldn’t put too much colour on – it would look like crude paint. Experience, a developing critical eye, colour analysis and discussions like these have slowly led me to change my mind.

My natural colouring is fair skin, very pale lips, short eyelashes in mid brown and no natural cheek colour. Without harmoniously balancing lips, cheeks and eyes, my face is a fairly featureless expanse. The gravatar pic I use is 6 years old now, from a time when I thought a whisk of tinted moisturiser, a nude lipstick and soft smudge of eyeliner and mascara was enough.

Nowadays I know soooooo much better. I use deeper lipstick to balance the intensity of my hair (I may be a dark autumn, but I am also fairly high contrast for a DA, brown and cream rather than HIGH contrast black and white of a Winter). I use blusher now, a very light sweep of an intense colour, and my eyeliner and brows balance my hair.

When I see myself reflected in shop windows I no longer see a pale blob of a face, instead I see a face with features. Nothing sticks out – no garish lips or clown like cheeks, just real features. But if I leave the eyeliner off, or forget to refresh my lipstick, the blandness creeps back.

Maybe I should get another pic done. Grin.

Contrast has such a huge part to play in colour analysis (and it is something that I didn’t even realise mattered until recently). I guess the low contrast people are probably the ones who do better without makeup. The high contrasts, unless they have naturally striking eyebrows, lashes and the intensly pigmented lips of youth are going to need a bit of makeup help…

Adriane,
No, I don’t make any connections there Adriane. As soon as we artificially enhance something, it’s hard for everything else to compete. Unless the lipstick is a sheer flesh-tone, I think you’d see the effect you describe across the board. Rather like wearing mascara and nothing else.

You know, Bright Springs can make color analysts nervous because of their superficial resemblance to Autumns, and yet hopeless intolerance for the Autumn colors.

That first drape is precisely what you say – the ultimate natural lip/cheek color of the Dark Autumn. The name of it – I don’t exactly know because Sci\ART doesn’t give each color a name. Cinnabar? Bronzed rose?

On the Facebook club, we discussed that lip color. My reaction was the same as yours, that it’s a bit light. Now, is that because the hair is light. Even if I flip the hair to the mid-range color of a coffee bean, I still feel pretty good about the lip. Perhaps it’s that browns are so forgiving on Autumns, where the rest of us look a bit flat. Perhaps the mauve in the liner changed the lip color in a good way.

Christine, could you please tell me (if you know), what the name of the colour of the drape in the first picture is? That is the closest I have seen to the natural colour of my flush – but I have never had a name to call it.

Valeria’s makeup is absolutely gorgeous… the eyes are fantastic. An already beautiful woman made intensely alive. And I am fascinated by the lipstick. My immediate reaction was that it was too soft, too pale and frankly a little bland. Then I realised that it did not interfere – at all – with any of the drapes. Most impressive. I wonder if I can find it over here in the UK…?

Oh, and on the subject of lipstick, a while back, you recommended Autumn by Estee Lauder as a good shade for Dark Autumns. It is discontinued in the UK, so the only place my seach found it was eBay. What a marvellous colour! I just came back from 8 days living out of a suitcase, and wore only that shade (with brown, purple, blue, cream and some black clothing). Your various makeup recommendations meant that I was able to travel with that one lipstick and a makeup bag just three inches by four.

Of course, now that I know that EL’s Autumn is discontinued, I am wondering whether to buy up the entire eBay stock…

Jo